Another mouth surgery

My sister and I were talking last week over the phone about things that were going on with us and after sharing our various health issues I made the comment that we sounded like a couple old ladies. We are only in our 30's! But it seems like we both have been having more health problems than ever before.

Thank goodness it nothing serious but it looks like I will need another minor surgery. I kind of knew this one was coming and I thought I was doing everything I could to avoid it but it turns out that I didn't know the real "root" of the problem. Get it, root, cuz it's in my tooth. haha. OK I know I'm lame but hey at least I make myself laugh. So back to the problem. See below.



You see how far the gum has recessed on the one tooth. I have a permanent retainer on my lower teeth which I thought was causing the recession since that gum area under it doesn't get excercised when I eat so I've been super diligent about flossing it daily. Only recently did the dental hygenist tell me that the recession was not because of lack of flossing but that it was due to the attachment from my lip to my gums being too short. Basically every time I talk it pulls on those lower gums, pulling them away from the teeth. I wish I would have known that sooner and I could have just gotten it clipped but since I didn't I will be getting not only a clip but a skin graft. Usually this entails the scraping off of tissue from the roof of the mouth and pasting of that skin underneath the gums. You can see why I've been avoiding this like the plague. I've seen patients afterwards ( I was a dental assistant for 4 years) and it is not pretty and they always told me how painful it was.

When I went into the periodontist for this evaluation I told him I was really not looking forward to this particular surgery. He then told me the good news!!! Just barely, this November I think, the ADA came up with a synthetic collagen that can take the place of the skin on the roof of the mouth, eliminating the need to take your own skin off. I was super excited when I heard about this. So what he will do is cut the gums under those two front bottom teeth, place the collagen there, stitch it up and it's done! Cool. Still not looking forward to it but glad there is an alternative to the scraping of the roof of my mouth. So if any of you have recession problems out there. Try to get to the "root" of it sooner than later so you can avoid my fate! I'll put some after pics for you too.